Last week, United for Peace and Justice had an active presence at the historic United Nations conference to negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons. The conference was mandated by a UN General Assembly resolution adopted in December of last year, to hold “a United Nations conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination” in 2017. Advocates of the ban treaty hope to achieve an impact similar to that of the Mine Ban Treaty – that is, to stigmatize the weapons, even among possessor states that don’t join the treaty, as a step towards their eventual elimination. (In 1997, 80% of the world’s countries negotiated a treaty aimed at eliminating anti-personnel land mines around the world, without the participation of the main offenders.) In 2016, 113 of the 193 members of the UN voted in favor of holding the nuclear ban treaty negotiations and even more participated during the first week of the negotiations.

At the outset, none of the nuclear-armed states are participating in the negotiations. On Monday, the opening day, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley held a widely-covered press briefing outside the conference hall. Flanked by nuclear allies including the U.K. and France, and claiming to represent almost 40 UN member states, Haley announced that they will be boycotting the negotiations. The absence of the U.S. and the other nuclear-armed states didn’t deter more than 130 countries, as well as United for Peace and Justice and our international NGO (non-governmental organization) colleagues, from fully participating in the conference. On day one, when the “U.S., Russia, Britain, China, and their minions walked out of the UN,” NYC War Resisters League hosted a vigil across the street from the UN, at the Isaiah Wall, and marched to the UN Mission to the United Nations to demand total disarmament.

We will continue to advocate and lobby when the ban treaty negotiations resumeJune 15 – July 7, and update you from the United Nations on the process and outcomes of the negotiations. (For comprehensive reporting on the ban treaty negotiations visit Reaching Critical Will.) And please plan to join the June 17 Women’s March to Ban the Bomb in New York City and sister marches.